Fishyless Cycle Log Take 2

[Aqua Tom]

04/01/11

Day 53

15 hours after dose

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0.25ppm

 

[waterdrop]

Good luck Tom, I see your initial stocking plans are taking shape over in another thread. I suspect that filter should be ready to settle in once it is able to drop back down to the lower ammonia load that the initial stocking will represent.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Aqua Tom]

5/1/11

Day 54

13 hours after dose

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0.25ppm

15 hours after dose

Nitrite 0ppm


Well I am happy with that now. My new light bar arrived today, plants should be here tomorow. Will lower the tempreature today. Gona have to do another waterchange to get rid of the bicarb (fingers crossed it dont mess up the cycle) will do this before the plants go in. Actualy may do a 25% change today. After that its time to raid the lfs's.

 

[Skins]

5/1/11

Day 54

13 hours after dose

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0.25ppm

15 hours after dose

Nitrite 0ppm


Well I am happy with that now. My new light bar arrived today, plants should be here tomorow. Will lower the tempreature today. Gona have to do another waterchange to get rid of the bicarb (fingers crossed it dont mess up the cycle) will do this before the plants go in. Actualy may do a 25% change today. After that its time to raid the lfs's.

Well done Tom, What a bloody cycle that was.

Keith.

 

[Aqua Tom]

5/1/11

Day 54

13 hours after dose

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0.25ppm

15 hours after dose

Nitrite 0ppm


Well I am happy with that now. My new light bar arrived today, plants should be here tomorow. Will lower the tempreature today. Gona have to do another waterchange to get rid of the bicarb (fingers crossed it dont mess up the cycle) will do this before the plants go in. Actualy may do a 25% change today. After that its time to raid the lfs's.

Well done Tom, What a bloody cycle that was.

Keith.

Its not over till the fat fish, eeerrrrrr, blows bubbles.


I have turned down the heater & will do a partial water change tonight so i can test stats again in the morning, taking it a bit more carefull this time around.


Right I have done a 20% water change. Will test in the morning & if it has not scrabbled the stats I will do a major change midday.

 

[Skins]

Fingers crossed!!!!

 

[waterdrop]

same here

 

[Aqua Tom]

6/1/10

Day 55, yes that is correct FIFTY FIVE !

0830

20.5 hours after 20% water change, water was temprature matched & treated

15 hours after dose

Temp 22c - a bit low but I am trying to adjust as I go I am aiming for abou 24-25c


Ammonia between 0 & 0.25ppm

Nitrite between 0.5 & 1 ppm

PH 8


I just dont get what I am doing wrong, I know the filter is nicely matured now so why does a water change cock it up so much? The only thing I can think of is the fact that my KH & GH are off the scale so the extra minerals etc in the water may be upsetting the cycle. Who knows?

I will test again at 18 hours after dose

Getting a bit frustrated now. as soon as plants arrive I am doing a 50% change & they are going in there, lets hope they help out.

 

[Skins]

Tom is there a big difference in the tap water ph going in and the tank water coming out, if so could just be the A&N bacs adjusting to the waters chemistry.
What do i know, just a newbie maybe the professor(WD)will shead some light on it for you.

Keith.

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting thought Keith! I've actually not thought about it from quite that angle before but it makes sense in that we do know that the autotrophic species are more sensitive to "delta" (ie. change in pH as opposed to absolute pH level) and when we do water changes we may indeed be seeing them react to pH change or even some other change that they sense, GH, KH or some other trace we don't measure. I vitually always observed what I call "hesitation" from the bacteria after water changes during fishless cycling - it's one of the reasons we feel a slight stress at being forced to water change while we are still cycling.

But let me come at this from a different angle also. It's very easy as a first-time fishless cycler to be overly sensitive to every thing we see that's out of line and I too have been guilty of making mountains out of mole hills. Water changes, even later after you have fish and the filter is extremely mature, will result in detectable traces of ammonia and nitrite appearing a fair amount of the time! Your cycle is at the point now where you may just be watching this sort of back and forth of the bacteria. You are already into "the process" of getting new stuff (plants AND fish) into the tank and I'm almost certain that your ammonia and nitite results will look nice and stable after you have fish and stop those big 5ppm ammonia doses. It's built in to our methodology that 5ppm is a -big- challange to the biofilter, whereas any full stocking or less will be less of a challange to that same filter - I think this is why we almost never see any mini-cycle problems after fish from our cyclers who have been patient enough to get to the final stage you are at. You just need fish now Tom .

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Aqua Tom]

Thanks for the supportive words wd & keith. I have just come home to find a "called while you where out" card from the royal mail, typical. Its either fish food or plants so i am going to pick it up & is it is plants then I am ahead with my big water change.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Right, it was my plants so i have gone ahead & done a down to the substrate change again to get rid of the bicarb. The tank is now planted with shed loads of plants.

I presume i stilll have to dose it untill I put my fish in?

 

[L4byr1nth]

Pics please Tom!

Ben.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Pics please Tom!

Ben.

asap

 

[Skins]

Right, it was my plants so i have gone ahead & done a down to the substrate change again to get rid of the bicarb. The tank is now planted with shed loads of plants.

I presume i stilll have to dose it untill I put my fish in?

When are you stocking Tom?